With a $1,000 loan from family friend Peter Buck, of Danbury, 17-year-old Fred DeLuca opened PeteâÄôs Super Submarines, which later became the first Subway sandwich shop in Bridgeport in 1965.
113 First store original name Pete's Super Submarine Sandwic.JPG less

With a $1,000 loan from family friend Peter Buck, of Danbury, 17-year-old Fred DeLuca opened PeteâÄôs Super Submarines, which later became the first Subway sandwich shop in Bridgeport in 1965.
113 First ... more

MILFORD -- The head chef of the world's largest restaurant chain stands behind the horseshoe-shaped counter of his laboratory, looking cautiously hopeful.

This is World Headquarters for Subway Restaurants, with the flags of 105 countries in which the company has franchises hanging in the entryway. As a result, the testing kitchen tucked behind the cafeteria in the downstairs feels conspicuously small and unassuming.

But it's here that Christopher Martone, a 44-year-old Milford resident, has spent the past 15 years churning out new key ingredients for the nearly 30,000 Subway restaurants in the U.S. and Canada.

Now, with a couple of guests visiting on a winter's day, he gathers some of his ingredients to build the latest version of a Subway sandwich. He slices open a loaf of the new jalapeno cheese bread, layers on lettuce, six tomato slices, eight slivers of turkey breast, red onions and his latest baby: Creamy Sriracha sauce.

The sauce was launched nationwide weeks ago, and Martone is hoping it will take off in the marketplace.

"Now I hold my breath," he says.

Local legend

If the meteoric rise of Subway is any indicator, Martone needn't worry. The company's history is the stuff of local legend. It began in 1965, with aspiring doctor Fred DeLuca borrowing $1,000 from a friend named Dr. Peter Buck to open Pete's Super Submarines on the East Side of Bridgeport. The first day they sold 312 sandwiches and quickly established the goal of owning 32 stores within 10 years, according to the Subway website.

Struggling to keep that pace, they started franchising the brand in 1974. By 1990, there was a roster of 5,000 Subway stores. They garnered several industry awards and carved out a reputation as a healthier alternative to fast-food chains like McDonald's.

In 1999, that reputation took human flesh (albeit a downsized version of it). Men's Health magazine published an article called "Stupid Diets That Work," which included the tale of a 425-pound student from Indiana University, Jared Fogle, who'd shed 190 pounds by eating two Subway sandwiches a day.

The rest, of course, is history. Buck, of Danbury, and DeLuca, who now lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., have each amassed fortunes of $2.8 billion, according to Forbes.

"Jared, like Bono and Madonna, is one of those celebrities who doesn't need a last name," Men's Health declared in a follow-up interview with Fogle last spring. "Say the name Jared and someone is likely to ask, `You mean the Subway guy?'"

Becoming a chef

Say the name Chris Martone and someone is likely to ask, "Who?"

But Martone's local ties run deep. He grew up in Shelton, spending endless hours in his family's kitchen, he says. He went to high school at Bridgeport's Bullard-Havens Tech, about a mile away from the site of the original "Pete's Super Submarines."

His high school teacher, Craig Voytek, recalls Martone as being a meticulous and dependable student who excelled at culinary arts. But he was just a normal kid, insists Voytek, who is still the craft's department head at Bullard-Havens.

In the mid-'90s, he moved to Georgia and helped build out Tex-Mex style Mexican chain Rio Bravo Cantina until the company was sold in 1999.

That year, Subway opened its first restaurants in Germany, Qatar, Sweden and Zambia. It opened its 14,000th overall and got wind of Jared.

It also hired Chris Martone as executive chef.

Going upscale

Fifteen years later, Martone's list of innovations could fill a foot-long.

He's introduced gourmet breads like the Hearty Italian and Parmesan Oregano to spice up the traditional choice of "White or wheat?" He created the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich and the Dijon Horseradish Melt. He brought in the Chipotle Southwest sauce and baby spinach.

Subway declined to provide Hearst Connecticut with information about company sales for this story, citing private ownership. Still, one measure of company success is scale of business. As of Friday, Subway had 41,151 overall restaurants -- 3,038 of them in Canada and 26,478 of them in the U.S, the two countries that are Martone's primary responsibility.

With that many restaurants, it's not easy to change the menu. For example, when Martone switched from white onions to red onions for sandwiches, the company's farmers needed almost a year to grow enough product.

The increased demand for such up-scaled menu options comes as no surprise to Kevin Coupe, editor and founder of the retailing news and commentary website morningnewsbeat.com. The Darien resident is a specialist in the retail and food industries.

"As a culture, we've become a lot more food-oriented, food-driven, and Subway has done an excellent job of repositioning the fast-food sector, focusing on health and taste," Coupe says.

Spicing it up

These days, Martone spends lots of time traveling around North America -- visiting vendors and franchisees, studying different foods in restaurants and observing what everyday people are eating. A couple of years ago, he started mulling the increased popularity of hot sauces. He soon offered a series of prototype sriracha sauces to his group of about 15 in-house taste testers. They narrowed the recipe down and sent a couple of options out to focus groups. When they decided last winter to go ahead with the sauce, they opted to keep the flavor truly hot -- it wouldn't be the sort of sauce for everyone's palate.

Just weeks into the life of the Creamy Sriracha sauce, it's too early to tell if the condiment will truly catch on. But Martone says the early numbers in his distribution line are looking good.

Even so, he's clearly a little bit unsure. Back at Subway headquarters, Martone lays out the two open loaves of jalapeno cheese bread before his two guests. With factory-like precision, he piles onto each loaf six slices of tomato, eight slices of folded turkey. He squeezes several lines of Creamy Sriracha on top, going up and down lengthwise.

Then he steps back and eyes his guests closely as they bite into the sandwich.

There is a mix of contended chewing and "mmm" sounds.

Martone smiles.

"I think it's the new king of the hill," he says.

Back to the roots

For Martone's old mentor, having a former student climb high in the world's largest restaurant chain has been fun to watch.

It's also been helpful. Martone serves on an advisory board at Bullard Havens, Voytek says, which provides him with invaluable help for crafting real-world relevant lesson plans. It's also helpful for students.

"I say, `We have a guy who works at Subway,' and they all say, `What's the big deal?' " he says. "I say, `Well, he's in charge of product development.' And they say, `What do you mean product development?' "

Voytek enjoys telling his students all that Martone has been up to.

"Then all of a sudden, the jaws hit the floor, because everyone knows Subway," he says.

"As simple as it is -- a sandwich -- it's worldwide."

For his part, Martone is not accustomed to making jaws drop -- unless it concerns customers about to feed themselves sandwiches.

Asked if he gets noticed at restaurants all over America, he shrugs sheepishly, as if being executive chef of the world's largest restaurant chain is nothing glamorous.